I think I'm going to have to change my publication day, considering it is now Monday evening as I sit down to write this. A Wednesday release would ideally give me the time to put the amount of thought and car in to these posts that I want to!
It's officially begun! The first event of Ontario Time Attack is in the books, and the 2025 Motor sports season is in full swing. I had quite the eventful weekend at the race track.
For me, an OTA double header is a week long endeavour. Motor sports is an expensive hobby, and I spend a lot of time trying to optimize how to do it in the cheapest way possible. This is the line of thought which originally prompted an interest in camping at the race track. My first year of OTA, I spent a lot of time in Air B&Bs. This wasn't a bad experience, but coming from over 3 hours away, I would be there at least 2 nights. I also had friends in the Toronto area who would let me toss an air mattress on the floor of their 1 bedroom apartment, but they've since moved away. Naturally, staying at the track is the next logical step. For grassroots events like OTA, camping is free, and it also means there is no commute in the morning, so you can sleep in. Assuming you get any sleep.
The BRZ has it's quirks and reliability issues, but I still believe its one of the best light sports cars for the every man who likes to go to the track. Why? Because I can fit everything I need for the weekend in the back of it. And if I want to bring a spare set of tires, with the help of my Sea Sucker vacuum mounted roof rack (please sponsor me), I can still bring everything I need and then some, provided I don't need to use the passenger seat.
The drive from Ottawa to Bowmanville (Canadian Tire Motorsports Park's location) is one that I've grown accustomed to. I typically hop on Highway 7 in Perth and take that all the way to my destination. Once I got over the initial anxiety of affixing several hundreds of dollars of camping equipment to my roof using suction cups, the drive was completely drama free. Aside from the realization that the wheel hub I wrote about in my last post apparently wasn't the only one going bad. Looks like I'll be replacing the front hubs as well and I may finally be able to drive the car without noise cancelling headphones.
I arrived at the track as the sun was beginning to set, and in typical OTA fashion I was welcomed warmly by a small group of people, who graciously offered to help me get my campsite prepped so I could join them at the camp fire.
Arriving just as the sun is setting on the Friday night before an OTA double header weekend has been the norm for me for most of my events the last few years. Because of this, I've taken steps and purchased equipment that drastically reduce my set up and tear down time so I don't have to take extra days off of work for travel. A standard pop up tent would work fine, but I wanted something my partner and I could share comfortable so we purchased a Gazelle T4 Overlanding Edition tent (please sponsor me) which boasts a set up time of under 90 seconds. This tent paired with a camping cot from Canadian Tire means I spend more time sitting around the fire, or walking the track.
With the tent pitched, and tires swapped by the light of my near useless head lamp toque, my first motor sports event of 2025 was about to begin. I had the pleasure of meeting my student for the Time Attack School the night before, and was able to knock out the pre-in-car questions to get a feel for who I was coaching.
That night, I became very aware that I had not properly planned for how cold it was going to be. Despite having a cold weather sleeping bag, I found myself shivering and unable to sleep. I Put on most of the clothes I had brought for the weekend in layers and managed to snag a few hours, but am still catching up on the sleep I lost.
Time Attack School
The next morning, I coerced a fellow enthusiast to bring me a hot coffee. At the time, this felt like god's greatest gift, having been chilled to the bone overnight. I was eagerly anticipating the day ahead and excited to get started. At the OTA Time Attack School, if you volunteer as an instructor they typically pay you in track time. I figured this was an excellent opportunity to shake down the car after the rebuild. Throughout the day, I would be sitting shot gun in my student's car as we started on the skid pad, went out on track, and did some auto cross in the afternoon.
The eventfulness of my weekend started on the skid pad. The way it works is you enter the circle, do 3 rotations, and then exit to a brake test where you can get a feel for your ABS. My student's first pass went about as expected. The gen 2 BRZ he had brought was equipped with a supercharger and made more power than stock, making it easy to get the rear wheels lose. The car kicked the rear end out quite easily and quickly overwhelmed my student on the first pass. Luckily for me though he was a quick learner, and did another 2 passes with varying degrees of over steer.
On our second try on the skid, however, after a single rotation the car went in to limp mode and cut power. My student had experience with this and new that we could get it out if limp mode by disconnecting the battery. We trundled back to his pit box and did so. A third attempt at the skid pad yielded the same result, so instead we went to line up for his first track sessions.
I got to know my student a bit the night before, and I knew that it wasn't his first time at the track. He told me stories about driving his old Corvette at Canadian Tire Motorsports park, so I assumed he had some experience. The first session went well. My student definitely had prior experience at the track, but seemed to be looking for pace more than consistency. I slowed him down and we chatted in traffic about what were going to do for the next few sessions and how we were going to improve his consistency at a slower pace. He was very receptive, and eager to learn.
After his track sessions, my student was expected to attend a classroom session. During this classroom session, the instructors get to use the track. Eager to get on track for the first time this season, I hopped in my car and went to line up. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes in to my session I received a furrowed black flag pointed at me. For those of you who don't know, a black flag is to bring cars on track back in to the pits for a conversation with the marshalls. When it is furrowed and pointed at you, it means they want to talk to you, specifically. I gave the flagging marshal a thumbs up, and made my way back to start finish.
When I arrived there, the marshal told me that I was dumping oil (a slight exaggeration.) I politely agreed to park my car in the pits. After parking the car, I noticed a modest amount of smoke coming from the engine bay, so I popped the hood to take a look. The smoke was coming from underneath the engine, which suggested that something was leaking on to the exhaust header causing the smoke. The smoke was being blown under the car when it was in motion, making it very difficult for me to see in the car while I was moving. Lucky for me, the guys from XII Motorsports (The shop who rebuilt my engine) were competing at the event the next day. Unlucky for me, my test day come to an abrupt end early in the day.
When my student came back from his class, we were up at the skid pad again. We gave it a few more tries, but every time the car went in to limp mode, so we decided to take a break and wait for the next track session. My student was already improving by his second session, and was keeping himself at a pace where we were both comfortable. This made what happened next even more surprising.
The sound the engine made was hardly violent. A quiet pop, like a balloon wrapped in a blanket. Then suddenly, smoke. A lot of it, pouring out of the engine bay and in to the cabin. Thankfully there was no panic, and my student calmly, but immediately pulled the car off the track. We sat there for a brief second contemplating if the car was on fire (this is the ONLY circumstance where you are allowed to exit a car on track.) After a few seconds the smoke started to subside and we decided it was safe to wait in the car for the session to end and the safety truck to come and get us.
Now safely back in the paddock, the initial shock was starting to wear off, and I could tell that the emotional turmoil of losing an engine so abruptly was starting to set in. Having experienced it myself last year, I had a good understand of what it feels like when that happens. With both of our cars now done for the day, we both went to an early lunch.
During lunch I was approached by the director of Ontario Time Attack (and also my friend) who offered his time attack FRS to my student to finish the day. When I offered this to my student, he lit up similar way a child would on Christmas day (I know this is a cliche, but I'm still tired from the weekend. Get off my back.) We did the two final sessions of the day, after which I was confident enough in my student's abilities that I felt comfortable signing him off for OTA events.
After the track closed, a few of us went out for dinner at a restaurant which I will not name (because I can't recommend it) and celebrated a successful first day.
That night we did a quick track walk by the light of the setting sun (and also my dying head lamp.) Then we settled down for some more camp fire beers. The weather had warmed up a bit, and I was actually able to get some sleep that night.
Event #1
Day 2 of the weekend was the first competition event, but this time, everyone was already at the the track, so nobody could pick me up coffee on the way. So I took it upon myself to be the one to go to Tim Horton's and grab coffees for those who wanted, and also used it as an opportunity to try to figure out where my car was leaking from. When I arrived back, the XIII Motorsports trailer was in the paddock so I parked next to it and left them the key while I went in to the main building to help with registration.
With the exception of a small group of latecomer yahoos, the day went largely according to plan. During the events, I work on the timing team, so I spend the majority of my day set up wherever race control is set up, and I help track the laps the cars are on, and watch for any instances where cars catch each other in the competition runs. Ontario Time Attack grids cars by lap times during competition, to ensure that their competition laps are clean and without traffic.
There were a few incidents, but only one of which really put a pause on competition. In the first practice session, an FRS went 4 wheels off at turn 9. And when I say 4 wheels off, I mean 4 wheels completely off the ground. He seemingly blew his braking zone so much that he simply went off the track over a hill and caught air going in to the infield. Amazingly, the car returned to the pits under it's own power, and after a quick visit to the XIII Motorsports trailer, was miraculously able to continue the rest of the day.
There was one other spectacular wreck that day, when a Honda Civic Si snapped a wheel hub going in to turn 3. It spun twice (if I remember correctly) before coming to rest in the grass between turn 3 and 4. His wheel, however, continued to roll across the infield. Thankfully the wheel did not rejoin the track, and settled on the grass, and the sessions was allowed to finish. After which, the safety crew enlisted the help of one of the other competitors with a trailer to bring the Civic back to the paddock, since they didn't have a flat bed.
I used the down time created by these incidents to start packing up my camp. I typically leave on the Sunday after the event so I get home in time to be up for work the following day. Thankfully, this time I had booked some time off, which has given me time to recover from the weekend, and also write this post.
The oil leak on my car is not fixed yet but after talking with Luke from XIII Motorsports we decided that it would be fine for normal street driving. We were right. The drive home for me was completely drama free, aside from the feint smell of oil. And that marks my first weekend of motorsports in 2025 off.
Cat Tax
